ANYONE CAN BE A HEALER January 16, 2006 Issue

Next in our biweekly series on how people have nurtured their public practice of Christian Science.

NEVER TOO EARLY

EVA-MARIA HOGREFE—-Boston, Massachusetts

AS A CHILD, I had an innocent willingness to comfort and help others, and to pray and trust God.

For example, I remember a man who had accidentally cut his hand on the moving blade of a threshing machine. As a French prisoner of war, he was working on a farm in a village in Germany, where I lived during World War II. When I saw him hurt, not knowing where to turn for help, I took his free hand and gently reassured him in German, "Es ist schon gut," that is, "It's all right!" And I indicated that I could pray for him. He nodded, "Oui, tres bien!" So I did pray for him as we were walking together down the village road. It came to me to take him to my mother, who spoke French. She sent him to a villager, who competently cleaned his wounds and bandaged his hand. After his hand had healed, he came back to thank my mother and me.

I recall how good this had made me feel inside. I think, through this and other experiences like it, I early on formed my own moral perspective: To comfort is to bless, and to be blessed. With childlike simplicity, I intuitively trusted God, and listened to His "still small voice" (I Kings 19:12). A poem by A. E. Hamilton describes this feeling:

Ask God to give thee skill
In comfort's art:
That thou may'st consecrated be
And set apart
Unto a life of sympathy.
For heavy is the weight of ill
In every heart;
And comforters are needed much
Of Christlike touch.

(quoted in Retrospection and Introspection, p. 95)

Those early experiences, I see now, were a prelude to a life-work of spiritual healing. Then, in my late teens, I was introduced to a powerful little book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The study of it became an enormous help to me, both in my professional life as a photographer, artist, and entrepreneur, and in raising a family. In those early years, my family and I, for professional reasons, lived and worked in several countries. Still, with all the demands placed on me, whenever a person would approach me with a problem, I'd carefully listen, and then offer my prayer. Often they would later come back and share their healing with me.

I learned that for me the best and most effective way of helping others was to turn to the Bible and Science and Health, and apply what I gleaned from those two books about God's love and His will of good for each of His children. As I pondered the riches of God's goodness, I couldn't help but feel inspired about the divine order of all things. Reflecting on it nurtured my confidence in my God-bestowed abilities. I witnessed God's, divine Mind's, order in my own life, as well. And people turned to me in their need.

That's how my healing practice grew, and with it came more spiritual conviction and practical experience, long before I had Primary class instruction in Christian Science. Needless to say, after I took this instruction, my understanding of the principles of Mind-healing deepened considerably. And not long after that, I took steps to become a Christian Science practitioner advertising in The Christian Science Journal. I feel that the example set by the teacher of the class played a part in this—he, too, had started his healing practice when young. And he would say, "When you love the practice, you're in it." For me, the healing practice has everything to do with this powerful word: love. Love for God, and love for His Christ, and love for mankind—that's what led me to my love for Mind-healing.

Two decades of a busy public healing practice have brought profound meaning and great joy into my life, as well as the opportunity to meet countless people from all walks of life—and across continents and cultures. And along the way, this healing work has furthered my own spiritual progress.

I EARLY ON FORMED MY OWN MORAL PERSPECTIVE: TO COMFORT IS TO BLESS, AND TO BE BLESSED.

The following Bible passage has inspired me: "The Lord God gives me the right words to encourage the weary. Each morning he awakens me eager to learn his teaching" (Isa. 50:4, Contemporary English Version). It can never be too soon to be taught of God, to hear and speak the Christ—Truth—at a moment when it's most needed, to reassure wisely and lovingly those who call for spiritual comfort, and to help them receive the blessing of Christian healing.

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'GATHER UP THE FRAGMENTS'
January 16, 2006
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